Gender-affirming care for minors under fire

The report warns that the current affirmation model "undermines the possibility of genuinely informed consent" and that the "true rate of regret is not known."

This becomes especially urgent when the outcomes-sterility, bone loss, and sexual dysfunction-are permanent. Can a 13-year-old grasp what it means to forgo biological parenthood?

As the report suggests, the system has failed to distinguish between a young person's wish to transition and their developmental ability to understand what that means long term.

A moral failure

The problem is not only medical-it's moral.

The HHS accuses the medical establishment of abandoning its core duty: to protect vulnerable patients. Ideology and activism, it argues, have taken precedence over evidence and caution.

"The evidence for benefit of paediatric medical transition is very uncertain, while the evidence for harm is less uncertain," it states.

Among the most disturbing trends highlighted in the report is the sidelining of mental health support.

Research suggests that most cases of paediatric gender dysphoria resolve without intervention. Yet clinicians continue to proceed with irreversible treatments.

"Medical professionals have no way to know which patients may continue to experience gender dysphoria and which will come to terms with their bodies," the report explains.

The illusion of consensus

The report also takes aim at the idea that gender-affirming care enjoys universal professional backing. It reveals that many official endorsements come from small, ideologically driven committees within larger organisations.

"There is evidence that some medical and mental health associations have suppressed dissent and stifled debate about this issue among their members," it warns.

Several whistleblowers have spoken out-often at considerable personal risk.